


How I'm Missing You

by cesare_the_somnambulist



Series: Sweetheart, We Need Each Other [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: But whatever, Coran is Nick Fury and I'm not even sorry, If the Paladudes were the Avengers, Keith is a badass, M/M, Minor Keith/Lance (Voltron), allura is my badass queen, and so is lance, but what else is new amirite, hunk needs to be protected, pidge is my genius daughter, seriously i'd let her step on me, she's actually older than me in this fic, they're so in love it's not funny
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-02
Updated: 2019-03-02
Packaged: 2019-11-08 03:50:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,341
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17973911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cesare_the_somnambulist/pseuds/cesare_the_somnambulist
Summary: “Flying...monkeys?” Allura said, baffled. “I’m afraid I don't understand -”“I did!” Shiro blurted out, surprised that he could keep up somewhat. Everyone stared at him. “I understood that reference,” he said with a proud smile.





	How I'm Missing You

**Sixty-Nine Years Later**

 

Waking up didn't feel any different than it had in the past. There was nothingness, and then Shiro was simply aware again. He opened his eyes and squinted against the sunlight flooding the -

_Where the hell am I?_

Faintly, he heard a voice: _“Just an absolutely gorgeous day here at Evans Field. The Phillies have managed to tie it up in quarter four. But the Dodgers have three men on.”_

Shiro sat up to scan his surroundings, but then stopped abruptly. Something was wrong...something was _missing._ He glanced down to see that his right arm was gone. Clearly they hadn't pulled him from the ice unscathed.

Pushing back his feelings of shock for the moment (he knew people who had lost worse, dammit), Shiro focused on finding out where he was. It was a simply furnished room, with a radio on the dresser in the corner of the room. This radio was the source of that quiet voice, but that couldn't be right - Shiro had _heard_ this broadcast before -

The door opened, and a young woman stepped in. “Morning,” she said cheerfully. “Or should I say, afternoon,” she corrected herself.

“Where am I?” Shiro asked her.

“You're in a recovery room in New York City,” she replied smoothly. In the background, the baseball game's commentary continued.

“Where am I, really?” Shiro asked.

The woman blinked, putting on a convincing face of concern. “I'm afraid I don't understand.”

“The game,” Shiro said, eyes flicking towards the radio. “It's from May, 1941. I know, ‘cause I was there.” He stood and walked towards her slowly, not wanting to send her running. “I'm going to ask you again: where am I? Who are you?”

“Captain Shirogane-” she began to say, but then the door opened and people in strange black uniforms walked in, with more waiting outside. Without waiting for any explanation, Shiro grabbed the first man into the room and threw him against the wall…

...except the wall gave way easily, leaving a gaping hole through which Shiro could see smooth metal walls. He ran out into a room much bigger than the one he had woken up in. Upon leaving that room, he emerged in a hallway full of people, who he immediately turned away from, running through the doors to the outside.

But what he saw outside wasn't any more comforting: flashing lights, cars, people in strange clothing. It was overwhelming, and _God,_ Shiro just wanted to go home, but deep down he knew he couldn't. He slowed to a stop, trying to take it all in, and then he was surrounded by black cars and men in black suits.

A man with an impressive ginger mustache and an eyepatch stepped to the front of this group, introducing himself as -

“Coran Hieronymus Wimbledon Smythe, director of the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division, formerly known as the S.S.R. I’m sorry for deceiving you back there, but I thought it would be best if we broke it to you gently.”

“Broke...what?” Shiro asked, dreading the man’s answer.

“You've...been asleep for quite some time, Captain,” the man said slowly. “Nearly seventy years."

 

Shiro was given a prosthetic arm which, to its credit, really _looked_ like his right arm. It just didn't feel like it. When he looked in a mirror for the first time in decades, he looked the same, except a part of his hair had turned white, right above his forehead. He tried to ask one of the doctors helping him test out his new arm about it, but she had merely shrugged.

“It looks nice,” she had reassured him, but Shiro just felt even more lost.

He spent days, then weeks in a state of numbness, unsure of what to do and how to do it in this modern world...

...Then he heard that the Tesseract had resurfaced in the hands of Lotor, a dangerous creature who the file identified as an ‘Altean’, and he felt cold all over again. Everything he had worked to stop back in 1943 was about to happen all over again unless he did something.

And now here he was, on a jet, reading over a series of files that seemed to be more fiction than fact.

“So this Doctor Savea was trying to replicate the serum they used on me?” Shiro asked the agent who was bringing him to the helicarrier.

“A lot of people were,” the agent replied. Coulson - his name was Coulson. “You were the world's first superhero. Savea thought gamma radiation might hold the key to unlocking Erskine's original formula.”

Shiro watched the footage of the giant green...thing as he raged across a city. “Didn't really go his way, did it?” he asked sadly. He felt strangely guilty.

“Not so much,” Coulson replied grimly. “But when he's not that thing, though, the guy's like a Stephen Hawking. He's like a smart person,” he added, seeing Shiro's obvious confusion.

“I gotta say, it's an honor to meet you officially,” Coulson said to fill in the awkward pause. “I sort of met you, I mean, I watched you while you were sleeping. I mean, I was present while you were unconscious from the ice. You know, it's really just a huge honor to have you on board…” he trailed off awkwardly.

“Well, I hope I'm the man for the job,” Shiro said. He liked the idea of feeling useful after apparently being asleep for sixty-nine years.

“Oh, you are. Absolutely,” Coulson said excitedly. “We made some modifications to the uniform,” he added rather proudly. “I, uh, had a little design input, made it a bit less...flashy. I hope that's okay -”

“That sounds great, Agent Coulson,” Shiro said truthfully, and Coulson looked about ready to faint.  


 

“Agent Kogane, Captain Shirogane,” Coulson introduced Shiro to a young man with dark hair and sharp violet eyes when they arrived on the Helicarrier. His face was impassive and his manner was polite and unassuming, but Shiro knew instinctively that he was dangerous. And even without his instincts to warn him, Shiro had read the man's file. The man was one as one of the world's deadliest assassins.

“They need you on the bridge,” he said to Coulson in a neutral tone, arms crossed over his chest. His eyes traveled about aimlessly as though he were bored, but Shiro was certain that he was observing, assessing, watching for threats.

“See you there,” Coulson said, smiling hesitantly at Shiro before leaving.

“I, um, hope Coulson didn't make you uncomfortable,” Kogane said quietly. Shiro got the sense that he rarely spoke.

“He seemed...nervous,” Shiro said, which was putting it mildly.

“He's a, uh, big fan of yours. Did he ask you to sign his trading cards?” Kogane asked.

“Trading cards?”

“They're vintage. He's very proud,” he said with a smirk before his expression closed off and he turned away, clearly done with their conversation.

And that was how he met Keith.

 

There was another man on the helicarrier who Shiro recognized from the files as Hunk Savea. He was solidly built, but he moved with infinite care in every step.

“Dr. Savea,” Shiro greeted him.

“Oh, hi!” the man replied with a wave and a warm smile. “They told me you would be coming. It's so nice to meet you, have you met - Has he met Coulson yet, Keith?” he asked Kogane - Keith, apparently - who nodded silently. “Coulson's a huge fan of yours, I bet he freaked out,” Hunk told Shiro as he shook his hand, and Shiro couldn't help but smile.

“Word is, you can find the Cube,” Shiro said, remembering that the nervous, rambling man before him was known as a genius by scientists nowadays.

“Well, I sure hope so. Is that...um, is that the only word on me?” He looked so _scared_ as he asked this, Shiro felt his heart break a little. No young man should have to look so afraid of himself and what he was capable of.

“Only word I care about,” Shiro said honestly, which made Hunk smile at him gratefully.

And that was how he met Hunk.

 

On board the helicarrier, Shiro felt overwhelmed by how much the world had changed. He had considered the technology that had turned him into Captain America nothing short of miraculous, and now here he was on this flying ship, listening to Hunk talk science with Coran. The young man used words that Shiro had never heard before the way one might name household items.

S.H.I.E.L.D. located Lotor using facial recognition, in Stuttgart, Germany. According to his file he was an alien, but he seemed fairly human besides the purple skin, white hair, and pointed ears. Shiro briefly wondered what else could possibly be up in space, then decided that that particular question could be put on hold for...forever, if only for the sake of his sanity. Shaking his head, he left to suit up.

Shiro nearly cried when he realized that his shield had been found with him. And he liked the new suit much better - it was entirely colored a dark blue, with the stars and stripes still in white across the chest. He reminded himself to thank Coulson for the changes, but now, he had a mission. With Keith as his backup, Shiro headed out in the Quinjet to find Lotor.

 

This Lotor guy was really starting to piss Shiro off. From the Quinjet, Shiro saw that not only was he forcing a whole crowd of innocent people to their knees, he had been about to fire at an elderly man who had stood up for himself. Without hesitation, Shiro jumped from the jet and landed in front of the man, using his shield to protect them both from the blast.

“The last time I was in Germany, I saw a man standing over everyone else,” Shiro said angrily. “I come back, and nothing has changed.”

“Ah. The soldier,” Lotor said, looking serene and unsurprised, “the man out of time.”

“I'm not the one who's out of time,” Shiro said, angered by his smug calm.

Behind him, he heard the Quinjet preparing to fire on Lotor. “Stand down, Lotor,” Keith said into the craft's loudspeaker. Lotor fired at the jet, but judging from the lack of an explosion, Keith had dodged the blast. Shiro used the distraction to attack Lotor.

They traded blows, and Shiro had to admit: the man (alien? Altean?) was good. He ended up kneeling before him, the sharp tip of his staff pressed into the back of his neck.

Then suddenly Lotor was thrown back in a shower of green sparks. What looked like a green and white suit of armor landed beside Shiro aiming several built-in weapons at Lotor. “Hands in the air, asshole,” a female voice snapped from inside the armor. Looking cowed, Lotor raised his hands, willing his armor to disappear.

“Dr. Holt,” Shiro greeted her, knowing it couldn't possibly be anyone else.

“Captain,” she addressed him shortly, her weapons withdrawing into her armor. “I prefer to be called Pidge.”

And that was how he met Pidge.  


They got Lotor in cuffs, and were currently on their way back to the Helicarrier, when suddenly the door to the Quinjet was pried open. A woman jumped onto the ship, wearing pink and white medieval armor and holding a strange U-shaped device in her hand. The woman had dark skin with pink v-shaped marks on her cheeks, flowing white hair, and pointed ears. She swatted Pidge aside in her full armor, grabbed Lotor, and jumped out the door without a word.

“Great, now there's this lady,” Pidge grumbled, getting to her feet.

“Another Altean?” Keith asked.

“Looked like one. She took Lotor; do you think she's friendly?” Shiro wanted to know. Judging by the way she had grabbed Lotor, she wasn't exactly on his side. And someone that powerful could be a useful ally -

“Doesn't matter,” Pidge said shortly. “If she frees Lotor or kills him, the Tesseract's lost.” And before Shiro could stop her, she had launched herself out of the door. Ignoring Keith's warning, he grabbed a parachute and jumped out after her.

When he caught up to them, they were in the middle of a fight, seconds away from striking at each other again. The woman’s strange device had turned into a whip of crackling blue energy in her hand, which did not bode well. “Hey!” he shouted, throwing his shield so that it ricocheted off of both of their armor before returning to him. “That's enough,” he said, approaching them slowly. “Now, would you mind telling us who you are and why you'd here?” he asked the white-haired woman carefully.

“I am Allura Alforsdottir: princess, warrior, and alchemist of Altea. I've come here to put an end to Lotor's schemes,” she said fiercely.

“Then we're on the same side. Please put your weapon down,” Shiro said.

“Cap, don't -” Pidge started to say, but the woman tossed her aside.

“‘Put my weapon down’? Very well,” she growled, launching herself at Shiro. He raised his shield, and when her whip made contact with it, the reverberation sent both of them flying in a shock wave of blue energy that made the trees sway.

And that was how he met Allura.  


After Shiro had survived Allura's attack, the alien had shown a sort of grudging respect for them and had agreed to allow them to keep Lotor (who, oddly enough, hadn't so much as attempted to escape during their fight) in their custody. She did insist, however, on accompanying them, so now there was an awkward silence on the Quinjet back to the Helicarrier. Shiro could sense that nearly everyone present besides Lotor was bursting with questions for the alien woman.

“I have to ask,” Pidge said quietly, shyly, “where _did_ you get that weapon? It seems like it was specifically designed to respond to your touch.”

Allura, who had been glaring at Lotor, turned to look at Pidge with an expression of surprise. “I am a princess of Altea,” she replied, “and this weapon is a sort of symbol of that status, I suppose. Only those it deems worthy can wield it.”

“I couldn't so much as _lift_ the thing, much less wield it,” Pidge said. There was no bitterness in her tone, only curiosity and maybe a bit of awe, which Shiro guessed the genius rarely felt.

Allura smiled sincerely, which made her look much younger all of a sudden. “Neither could I, for a time,” she said honestly. “And then I came to Earth.” Her gaze returned to Lotor, who looked down meekly under her fierce glare. “I have grown fond of this planet, and I am prepared to protect it, no matter _who_ stands against me,” she asserted.

Shiro and Pidge exchanged quizzical glances, but stayed silent.  


Later, back on the Helicarrier, Shiro, Hunk, Keith, and Allura watched the security feed of Lotor conversing with Coran.

“Well, this is certainly an impressive cage,” the alien drawled. “Although I can't help but wonder, was it really built for the likes of me?”

“Young man, this cage was built to contain something far stronger than you,” Coran said said breezily, but there was a steely undertone in his voice.

“Indeed,” Lotor said with amusement, looking directly into the camera. Shiro had to remind himself that he couldn't really see them. “I’ve heard of your pet...beast, shall we say? Or does it still like to pretend that it's a man?” he asked casually.

Shiro sort of felt like murdering Lotor at that moment. Keith and Allura looked furious as well, but Hunk simply looked resigned.

“Are you really so desperate, little human,” Lotor continued, turning back to Coran, “that you would call on such lost creatures to defend you?”

“You threatened my world with war,” Coran said, his voice dangerously quiet. “You stole a force you can't possibly hope to control. My job is to keep _peace_ , and here you show up, killing just because it's a _game_ to you.” His voice had risen slightly, but he remained calm and in control. “So yes, maybe I am a bit desperate. But you won't be glad that you've made me so.”

Lotor smirked. “Well, I _did_ give you a chance to avoid all of this. To kneel before me and join my glorious conquest, the cleansing of the universe. But you refused to acknowledge true power when you saw it, and these are the consequences.”

Coran's eyes narrowed. “Well, do let me know if ‘true power’ would like a magazine or something of the sort,” he said curtly, turning and walking away.

“He really grows on you, doesn't he?” Hunk said quietly.

“Hunk…” Shiro started to say, but Hunk raised a hand to stop him.

“Don't worry about it, Captain,” he said with a tired smile, “I'm used to it.”

Shiro knew that Hunk was pretending to be unbothered, but he sensed that if he pressed the matter, he would make it worse. _Better to focus,_ he thought. “Lotor plans to draw this out. What's his play, Allura?” Shiro asked, knowing that she was the most likely to know.

“It's...complicated,” Allura said, a scowl twisting her delicate features. “You see, my people, the Alteans, and another people called the Galra have coexisted peacefully for deca-phoebs.” Shiro briefly wondered if ‘deca-phoebs’ was a modern term on Earth, but the confused looks of the others told him otherwise. “Recently, however, there have been tensions between us, bordering on war because the Galra have become a harsher, more militant people. Lotor was a Galra prince, but he has now rejected his Galra lineage and seeks enough power to destroy the Galra entirely to prove himself ‘worthy’ of the Altean blood that runs through his veins. He has an army of sentries behind him, and plans to take over the Earth in order to expand his influence across the galaxy.”

“And this army is currently in outer space?” Shiro asked. Allura nodded grimly.

“So he's building another portal,” Hunk realized, “that's what he needs Doctor Slav for.”

“Doctor Slav?” Allura repeated in disbelief.

“Yeah, he's an astrophysicist,” Hunk nodded enthusiastically. “Really brilliant guy from what I've heard. Do you know him?”

“He's a friend,” Allura said sadly.

“Lotor has him under some kind of spell,” Keith said, “along with one of ours.” His usual scowl deepened as he said this, and Shiro noticed that he refused to look at Allura.

“I want to know why Lotor let us take him so easily,” Shiro said in order to change the subject before an argument over Lotor broke out. Out of all of their issues, that was the one that bothered him the most.

“Uh, I really don't think we should be focusing on Lotor,” Hunk said timidly, “I mean, the guy's pretty much insane, right?”

Allura spoke to him sharply. “Lotor may be beyond reason, but he is one of my own - watch how you speak of him.” Shiro could hear an undercurrent of melancholy in her tone and wondered just how close she and Lotor had been before.

“He killed eighty people in two days,” Keith reminded her, glaring at the tabletop.

“I am _not_ making excuses for him,” Allura snapped, sounding horrified that they would think such a thing. “But Lotor was a dear friend of mine before he became...twisted. We -” she broke off, her expression pained. “We were engaged to be married,” she said softly.

“Does that mean you're going to be soft on him?” Keith asked, finally looking up at her. “‘Cause that might be a problem for us.”

Allura turned her icy blue gaze on Keith, eyes narrowed. “What Lotor has done is unforgivable. I will do _everything_ in my power to bring him to justice.”

“Guys, we should really be focusing on the mechanics here,” Hunk interjected. “What bothers me is the iridium he stole from Stuttgart. What does he need iridium for?”

“It's a stabilizing agent,” Pidge said, suddenly entering the room. “It means that the portal won't collapse on itself like it did at S.H.I.E.L.D. Also, it means the portal can open as wide, and stay open as long, as Lotor wants,” she explained, adjusting her enormous round glasses as she idly examined the screens at Coran's station. Honestly, this woman scared Shiro, just a little bit - the glowing green circle on her chest served as a constant reminder of her ingenuity, as well as what she had suffered. Shiro recalled what he had read in her file and once again felt relief that she was on their side.

“The rest of the raw materials, your Hawkeye should be able to get pretty easily. The only major component he still needs is a power source of high-density energy, something to...kickstart the Cube, if you will,” Pidge continued.

Agent Acxa, Coran's right hand, listened to Pidge skeptically. “When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?”

“Last night,” Pidge told her, and Shiro could tell that she wasn't joking

“Does Lotor need any particular power source?” Shiro asked her.

Hunk, who had begun to pace, answered him - at least, that's what Shiro had to assume he was doing, because he couldn't understand a single word of it. Pidge replied in equally incomprehensible terms, and oh, God, Shiro was going to get a migraine or something. Could he still _get_ migraines after the serum?

“Finally, someone who speaks English,” Pidge said to Hunk with a grin. It was the most emotion he had ever seen on her face, and it made her look years younger.

“Is that what just happened?” Shiro wondered aloud, and Keith sent him a sympathetic look.

“I gotta say, it's so great to meet you, Dr. Savea,” Pidge said, extending her hand out to Hunk. “Your work on antielectron collisions is _unparalleled_.”

Hunk smiled and was about to reply when Coran entered the room. “Ah! It's nice to see you two are getting along. I was hoping you might work together in finding that darn Cube.”

“I would start with that stick of his,” Shiro said, recalling how Lotor has used it to create mass panic in Stuttgart. “It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon.”

“Well, it _is_ powered by the Cube,” Coran said thoughtfully, “and I would like to know how he used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys.”

“Flying...monkeys?” Allura said, baffled. “I’m afraid I don't understand -”

“I did!” Shiro blurted out, surprised that he could keep up _somewhat._ Everyone stared at him. “I understood that reference,” he said with a proud smile.  


Pidge and Hunk retreated to the lab, chatting excitedly about...something. Allura remained with Coran at the command center of the Helicarrier, and Keith...Keith disappeared before Shiro could even think about looking for him. Not knowing the whereabouts of his team while Lotor was on board gave Shiro an uneasy feeling, so he decided to find the man.

Eventually, he found him in a supply closet, of all places. After a quick glance, Shiro had almost left to go search another place, but the soft glow of a cellphone had caught his eye. He opened the door to let in more light, and there was Keith, staring at the screen, wires connecting his ears to the device. It may have been the light, but his eyes looked red.

Keith was on his feet immediately, clearing his throat before speaking. “What is it? Is something wrong?”

“Oh - No, I just - wanted to know where you were in case something did to wrong,” Shiro stammered, knowing he had caught him at a bad moment.

“Well, you found me. Good job,” Keith deadpanned, crossing his arms. Shiro was about to leave, to salvage the remains of his dignity, but his attention was again drawn to the wires that ran from Keith's head to the phone. _Do those hurt?_

“If you don't mind my asking, what...are those?” Shiro asked, pointing to the wires.

Keith looked startled, and Shiro realized that he had been closing himself off in preparation for an emotional pep talk from Captain America. He hadn't been expecting a question about his modern tech. “These - ? These are earbuds,” he said, caught off guard. “They, uh, they help me listen to music without everyone else hearing it.”

“Do they hurt?” Shiro asked, tilting his head in an attempt to see them better.

Keith laughed - actually laughed! “No, they don't. Do you wanna try them?”

Shiro considered it. “Maybe another time,” he said. “So, they help you listen to music that no one else hears?” Keith nodded. “And that thing plays music?” Shiro pointed to the phone.

“Yeah, it - Well, there's a specific app - uh, application that plays music. It's called YouTube, and you can pretty much search up any song -"

“Any song?” Shiro interrupted him, his mind suddenly whirling with memories - one memory in particular, of a night in 1943, in his tent in Italy, with Adam in his arms -

“Uh...pretty much, yeah,” Keith said. “Is there...any song that you...wanna listen to right now?” he offered slowly, cautiously. Shiro felt a surge of warmth for this man that he barely knew, who was helping him understand new technology and was now offering to let him _use_ it.

“‘Sweetheart, We Need Each Other’, by Ben Pollack's orchestra,” he requested softly, his whole body humming with sadness and longing and anticipation. Keith saw the look on his face and nodded, typing something into his phone. Then he unplugged the earbuds from the device and let the song play out loud, in this tiny closet, for Shiro, who hadn't heard it in _so long._

Shiro nearly wept when the song started to play, exactly the same as he remembered it. He listened with tears gathering in his eyes, thinking of how much simpler the 1940s seemed now; thinking of Ronnie, and how she had practically been his sister; and most of all, thinking of Adam, Adam, _Adam -_

_(“Why is the bluebird sad and so blue? Missing his sweetie, what can he do?”)_

And now Shiro _was_ weeping...

_(“He has a blue song, you hear him coo: ‘Sweetheart, we need each other.’”)_

...feeling his heart break all over again for the man with whom he had grown up...

_(“Not like a bluebird, more like a jay. ‘I miss you, sweetie, I get that way.’ Then like the mockingbird, I have to say: ‘Sweetheart, we need each other.’”)_

...the man with whom he had laughed and cried...

_(How I'm missing you. I'd rather spend my time just kissing you.)_

...the man with whom he had fought side-by-side...

_(“Bees need the flowers, flowers the dew. We all need someone, honey, how I need you.”)_

...the man with whom he had fallen in love.

_(Oh, sweetheart, we need each other.”)_

“Thank you,” Shiro said to Keith, wiping his tears away roughly. “ _Thank you._ ”

Keith smiled slightly, blinking hard. “That song's pretty special to you, huh?” His voice was rough as he asked this.

“You have no idea,” Shiro replied with a teary laugh. When the song ended, they sat there in silence for a while. Then, remembering Keith's red eyes from before, Shiro couldn't stop himself from asking, “What were you listening to earlier? You don't need to tell me, of course -” he added hastily.

“It’s, uh…” Keith hesitated, then seemed to gather his courage. “It's a playlist - a list of songs,” he clarified, seeing the confusion on Shiro's face. “I - I don't usually listen to YouTube, but, uh… Lance - Hawkeye - gave me this particular playlist.” With a soft smile on his face, he showed the screen to Shiro. On it was a list of videos under the title, _‘STOP LISTENING TO EMO MUSIC, MULLET!!!’_

“‘Mullet’-?” Shiro asked, unfamiliar with the term.

“It's a long story,” Keith chuckled. “I'll have Lance tell it to you when we get him back.”

“I look forward to it,” Shiro said, slightly bewildered, but mostly just... _happy,_ in a way that he felt that he could get used to.  


After taking a moment to compose themselves, Shiro and Keith split up: Shiro headed to the lab, and Keith went to interrogate Lotor. When Shiro heard that Keith intended to talk to Lotor alone, he felt uneasy, but he knew that Keith would most likely be offended by his concern. As one of the world's most formidable spies, he had a right to feel that way, so Shiro kept his mouth shut.

When he got to the lab, Pidge was talking to Hunk, gesturing excitedly. “- anything they've ever tried to hide,” she was saying proudly.

“Who's hiding anything?” Shiro asked warily. They both jumped as he entered the room, and Hunk had a decidedly guilty look on his face that only fueled Shiro's suspicions.

“Captain,” Pidge greeted him. “You're just in time to watch my decryption program finish breaking into all of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s secure files,” she said casually.

 _Your what is going to do_ what, now? “I'm sorry, did you say -”

“My A.I. assistant G.R.E.E.N. has been running it since I hit the bridge. In a few moments, I'll know all of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s dirty secrets,” she revealed.

“Pidge,” Shiro said slowly, “maybe we should be focusing on the real problem here, instead of digging up dirt on S.H.I.E.L.D.”

“I _am_ focusing on the real problem: why did Coran wait until now to call us all in?” Pidge asked, her eyes flashing defiantly. “What isn't he telling us? I can't do the equations unless I have all the variables.”

She had a point. “You think Coran's hiding something from us?” Shiro clarified.

“He's a _spy_ , Captain,” Pidge said in an almost condescending tone that Shiro did _not_ like. “He's _the_ spy, his _secrets_ have secrets and it bugs me - doesn't that bug you?” she addressed Hunk.

“Um,” Hunk said nervously, “I - I don't know...I just want to finish my work and…” he trailed off, clearly troubled.

“Doctor?” Shiro asked carefully.

Hunk sighed, then looked up at both of them. “I mean...I _do_ think it's kinda weird that Pidge here is pretty much the only name in clean energy thanks to her arc reactors - _very_ impressive work, by the way - but they didn't bring her in when they were trying to harness the Tesseract’s energy. What are they doing in the energy business in the first place?”

“That's exactly the kind of question that my program is going to find all the answers to,” Pidge said triumphantly.

“You shouldn't be _running_ that program in the first place,” Shiro pointed out angrily. “We have orders, and we need to follow them. Once Lotor and the Cube are secure, you can investigate S.H.I.E.L.D. all you want.”

“I don't like following orders from people I can't trust,” she replied stubbornly. They glared at each other for a moment, then they both turned to Hunk, silently asking for his opinion.

Hunk shook his head wearily. “Shiro - Can I call you that?” Shiro nodded shortly. “Shiro, tell me none of this smells suspicious to you,” he said with an almost pleading expression. They were both right, but Shiro didn't want to admit that in front of Pidge. He knew it was childish, but he _hated_ feeling stupid, and she had a talent for making him feel that way.

“Just find the Cube,” he said, leaving the room. _Just let it go,_ he told himself firmly. He heard the scrape of metal against metal and realized that his fists were clenched.

A few minutes later found himself in one of the Helicarrier's storage rooms. _I shouldn't be here,_ he thought, but continued further into the room, prying one of the boxes open without much trouble. And what he saw made him flood with horror.  


 

Shiro walked back to Hunk's lab numbly, his body moving of its own accord. When he got there, Coran was already present, no doubt confronting Pidge about her little hacking stunt. “What is Phase Two?” Pidge was asking Coran innocently.

In answer, Shiro dropped the weapon that he had found on a nearby table. “Phase Two is S.H.I.E.L.D. uses the Cube to make weapons,” he replied, willing his voice not to waver. He couldn't help turning to Pidge and saying, “Sorry, computer was moving a little slow for me.”

“Captain, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract,” Coran said. “This does not mean -”

“I'm sorry, Coran, what was that you were saying?” Pidge asked, turning her screen around to show blueprints for weapons that she had found.

“I was wrong, Director,” Shiro said coldly. “The world hasn't changed a bit.”

Then Keith and Allura entered the room. _Oh, God,_ Shiro thought forebodingly. Having all of them in one place right now would _not_ end well.

“Keith, did you know about this?” Hunk demanded.

“Dr. Savea, you might not want to engage in this conversation right now,” Keith replied calmly. “Lotor may be manipulating you.”

“Oh, yeah? And you've been doing what, exactly?” Hunk asked defiantly.

“I didn't have to manipulate you into coming here,” Keith pointed out.

“Yeah, you didn't. I came here of my own accord, and I'm not leaving now just because you get a little twitchy,” Hunk said, backing away from him. “I’d like to know why S.H.I.E.L.D. is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction,” he raised his voice as he pointed to Pidge's screen.

“It's because of her!” Coran said, pointing at Allura accusingly.

“Me?” Allura asked, bewildered.

“Last year, Earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town,” Coran told them. “We learned that we're not alone, and that we are terribly outmatched by these alien forces!”

“My people want nothing but peace with your planet,” Allura said angrily.

“But you’re not the only people out there, and you are most _definitely_ not the only threat,” Coran said.

“It was _your_ experiments with the Tesseract that drew Lotor’s attention!” Allura retorted. Suddenly, everyone was arguing, raising their voices, trying to have their opinions heard.

“How can you speak about control when all you do is promote chaos?” Allura asked angrily.

“Well, that's how he operates isn't it?” Hunk asked bitterly. “I mean, _look_ at us. We're no team, we're - we're like a chemical mixture that can only end in chaos.”

“Dr. Savea, maybe you should step away,” Coran said slowly. “Agent Kogane, if you could escort him back to his room -”

Hunk laughed - a brittle, hollow sound. “Room? What room? I think you'll find my _room_ already rented,” he said, gesturing in the direction of Lotor's cell.

“Doctor, that cell was just in case -” Coran began to explain, but Hunk cut him off.

“In case you needed to contain me, yeah, I get it. Small problem, though - I've tried. I tried to isolate myself in the middle of a goddamn ocean, and the other guy _swam_ back and wrecked the nearest city.” Hunk looked tired - so tired, and sad, and - and angry. “When that backfired - _God,_ did it backfire - I tried to move on. I focused on - on helping other people. I was _okay._ But now, you've dragged me back to this freak show, and put _everyone on this Helicarrier at risk._ You want to know my secret? You want to know how I stay calm?” Shiro wasn't sure when it had happened, but Hunk’s voice had risen to a shout.

“Dr. Savea,” Coran said softly, carefully, and Shiro realized what had made him interrupt.

“Put down the scepter,” Shiro said. Hunk looked down at his hand, startled to find Lotor's scepter there. Then one of his computers started beeping.

“We've got it,” Pidge said triumphantly, quietly.

Hunk put the scepter back on the table gingerly. “Sorry, kids,” he said, walking over to the computer, “you don't get to see my party trick after all.”

“I'll be able to get to it the fastest,” Pidge volunteered, already starting to leave the room.

“The Tesseract belongs on Altea; no human is a match for its power,” Allura protested.

Shiro heard Hunk softly say, “Oh, my God,” right before an explosion sent everyone in the lab flying.

Shiro heard a commotion, people shouting information and orders through the comms.

“- engine three is down - !”

“- no way to make repairs while we’re in the air -”

“Initiate defense protocol -!”

Pidge seemed to be making sense of the jumbled mess, fortunately. “Get to engine three!” she told Shiro, “I’ll meet you down there.” Shiro ran, concerned thoughts of Hunk, of Keith, of Allura running through his mind. He recalled the state that Hunk had been in when the explosion had occurred, and he felt a thrill of horror run through him. But right now, he had to focus. He got to the engine, a wreck of metal over a cloudy sky.

“I’m here, Pidge,” he said into his comm, raising his voice over the wind.

“Good,” she replied, and he saw her arrive in her armor. “Let’s see what we got.” Shiro mumbled to herself for a moment, then seemed to reach a decision. “I need you to get to that control panel and tell me which relays are in overload position,” she told him, pointing to the control panel that she meant. Then she flew off without any further explanation.

Shiro was able to find the control panel, but to him it just looked like a mess of circuits and buttons. “What does it look like in there?” she asked him.

Shiro sighed. “It seems to run on some form of electricity,” he told her.

“Well, you're not wrong,” she muttered. Somehow, she walked him through making sure that the ‘relays’ were intact while simultaneously working on fixing the engine from the outside.

“Okay, the relays are intact,” Shiro reported. “What's our next move?”

“Even if I clear the rotors, this thing won't re-engage without a jump,” Pidge said. “I'll have to get in there and push.”

“If that thing gets up to speed, you'll be shredded,” Shiro realized aloud.

“You see that red lever?” Shiro turned, and sure enough, there was a red lever to his right. “It'll slow the rotors down long enough for me to get out. Stand by it and wait for my word.” Shiro complied, but suddenly, there were men attacking him. He was holding them them off successfully, but suddenly Pidge’s voice was in his ear, asking him to hit the lever. And he was currently dangling off the edge of the Helicarrier. He climbed back up, but there was still someone shooting at him, forcing him to duck down. “Help!” he heard Pidge yell desperately, and he used his metal arm to pull the lever. _God, I hope it was the right one,_ he thought as the man continued firing at him. Suddenly, a green-and-white blur shot past him, tackling his assailant. _Pidge._

“I meant to ask,” she said conversationally as they returned to the Helicarrier's interior. “How's the arm? I've never really made one before, but -”

“Wait, you _made_ this?” Shiro asked in shock. She nodded casually. “I - I've never had a mechanical arm before, but - as far as arms go, it's a good one.” He paused. “Thank you.”

“You're welcome,” she said, and she sounded happy. “Now, let's go see what the damage is.”  


Hunk had transformed, but he hadn't destroyed anything important, thank God. Keith had managed to take Hawkeye captive, and he was currently out cold in a secure room. Allura and Hunk were nowhere to be seen.

And Agent Coulson had died, impaled by Lotor's scepter.

As Shiro stared at the bloody Captain America trading cards that Coran had placed on the table, he felt angry at Lotor all over again.

“You know, I never intended to fully rely on those Tesseract weapons,” Coran told him and Pidge in the Helicarrier’s command center. “Because there was an idea called the Avengers Initiative. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people and see if they could become something more. To see if they could work together when we needed them, to fight the battles we never could.” He spoke softly but with emotion, clearly as affected by Coulson's death as any of them. And Shiro found himself believing him.

But Pidge simply left the room.  


“I'm sorry about Coulson, Pidge,” Shiro said quietly, having found her in the spot where he had died. “He seemed like a good man.”

“He was an idiot for taking on Lotor alone,” Pidge replied blankly. “He was _way_ out of his league, he should have _waited_ .” He knew that she there was no real blame behind her words - but she needed _someone_ to blame, _some_ faulty piece of machinery that the malfunction could be attributed to.

“Is this the first time you've lost a soldier?” Shiro asked.

“We are _not_ soldiers, _Captain_ ,” Pidge said, her brown eyes flashing in anger. “And I refuse to march to Coran's tune.”

“So do I,” Shiro said firmly. “He's obviously been hiding things from us, but right now, we need to put that behind us and get this done.”

“Lotor made it personal,” Pidge realized suddenly. “He knows he has to beat us to win, and he wants to do it in front of everyone.”

Shiro nodded in understanding. “Yeah, he seems like that kind of person.”

“He wants a big show - a spectacle. He wants a monument built to the skies, with his name plastered -” she faltered, her eyes widening.

“Pidge?” Shiro asked, concerned.

“Son of a _bitch,_ ” she whispered.  


Now Shiro was on board a jet to New York with Keith and his recently recovered friend, Hawkeye.

“We haven't met,” Shiro realized aloud. “I'm Takashi Shirogane.”

Lance looked at him over his shoulder and...winked at him? “Oh, I've heard all about _you_ , Captain,” he said in an unmistakably flirtatious voice.

Shiro was confused - _very_ confused. What exactly did he think he was doing?

“Lance!” Keith reprimanded him, swatting his shoulder. “Eyes out front, we've got somewhere to be.”

“Okay, okay,” Lance chuckled, turning forward again. He seemed to be taking it as a joke, but Keith...well, he seemed to be taking it another way entirely, crossing his arms and scowling out the window.

The way Lance had flirted with him. The way Keith had reacted. Keith's emotional reaction to the playlist Lance had given him. _Oh my God,_ Shiro thought ecstatically. Lance and Keith gave him quizzical glances, and he realizes he had said it out loud.

“I - I didn't realize that you could...do this now,” he managed to say, gesturing towards the two of them. More confused looks. “That is, I - two people of the same gender - you know, it was frowned upon in - in my time -”

“Oh, yeah,” Lance said, understanding dawning on his face. “Yeah, it's okay to be gay - uh, to like boys in 2012. Totally. I myself am a raging bisexual, and Keith over here -”

“Very gay and very proud,” Keith said softly, shyly.

Amazing,” Shiro said, gazing at them in awe.

Keith narrowed his eyes at his expression. “Cap, are you - Uh, you didn't think that...that Lance and I were...together...right? ‘Cause we...aren’t.”

Shiro blinked once, then twice - hard. “You aren't?” he asked, completely bewildered. Lance and Keith exchanged a glance, then started to laugh.

“This is like...the fifth time...this has happened,” Lance gasped through his laughter. “But yeah...sorry, dude...we’re not.”

“Can you imagine?” Keith chuckled, and they both burst into laughter again, although it sounded forced.

“Oh my God,” Shiro said again, shaking his head at the two of them.

And that was how he met Lance.  


When they arrived, the city was already under attack. There was a portal in the air above Holt Tower, and what Shiro assumed to be sentries were swarming through the air, chasing a green-and-white figure that he knew was Pidge, already fighting.

Lance brought the jet up to Holt Tower, where Lotor and Allura were visible, battling fiercely. “Keith?” Lance prompted.

“I see him,” Keith replied, firing the jet's guns at Lotor once Allura was out of range. But Lotor simply fired at them with his scepter, sending them to the ground, where things were steadily getting worse as more Galra sentries flew in through the portal. People ran screaming as Lotor's army attacked.

“We've still got civilians up here,” Shiro said, crouched behind an abandoned taxi beside Keith and Lance. A group of Galra vehicles flew overhead, and Shiro recognized Lotor's mane of white hair as he passed. “Lotor,” he said softly, angrily. “These people are fish in a barrel.”

Suddenly, Keith was moving, firing at the sentries that were slowly closing in on them from the ground. “Lance and I have got this,” he said, turning to Shiro.

“You can hold them off?” Shiro asked.

“Captain,” Lance said, selecting an arrow from his quiver, “it would be my genuine pleasure.” And with those words, he fired at a sentry, hitting it right in the forehead. A spray of bullets issued from the arrow's end, taking out two more sentries. Reassured, Shiro ran after Lotor.

Seeing a group of policemen in his path, Shiro stopped to talk to them. He would need all the help he could get in evacuating the civilians safely. “You need men in those buildings,” he said, pointing. “There are people in there, and when they start running, they'll be right in the line of fire. Take them to the basements or through the subway, keep them off the streets. I need a perimeter as far back as 39th.”

“Why the hell should I take orders from you?” the policeman demanded. _Oh, New Yorkers,_ Shiro thought with affectionate exasperation. Suddenly there were several sentries attacking, and Shiro had to fight them off. After he had finished, he heard the man repeating his orders to his own men.

He rejoined Keith and Lance in front of Grand Central Terminal, and a few minutes later, Allura descended from the sky above them, her bayard making quick work of the sentries in their immediate vicinity.  
  
“Allura,” Shiro greeted her, “glad to see you’re okay. What’s going on upstairs?”  
  
“The cube is surrounded by an energy barrier,” she reported gravely, “even my magic can’t pierce it."  
  
"She's right. All we can do for now is deal with these sentries," Pidge told them over the comms.    
  
"Wow. Um...I don't believe we've met," Lance said to Allura, clearly in awe of the silver-haired alien. "The name's Lance, but you can call me Hawkeye. Shooting is kinda my thing," he said, his thumbs and index fingers forming miniature guns as he winked at the princess. She only looked confused in turn.  
  
"Really, Lance? Right now?" Keith grumbled.  
  
"Both of you, save it," Shiro commanded. "Lotor's going to keep this fight focused on us, and that's how we want to keep it. Otherwise, these sentries might start wrecking everything without a target." He heard the sound of a motor behind him and turned around to see Hunk, riding a motorcycle towards them through the wreckage that was now New York.    
  
"Well, this is all just...well, it's horrible, isn't it?" he said nervously as he dismounted the bike.  
  
"I've seen worse," Keith said dismissively - or was he trying to comfort the doctor? Shiro couldn't tell, but Hunk certainly didn't look comforted.  
  
"I'm sorry you have," he told Keith. He looked terrified, but he was still _here_ and Shiro felt grateful for such a quietly brave act.  
  
"Is that Hunk?" Pidge's voice asked.  
  
"Yeah, he's here," Shiro replied.  
  
"Good. Tell him to suit up, _quickly_ ," she said, rather frantically.  
  
Shiro didn't have time to wonder why that was, because then he spotted Pidge rounding the corner, with a huge...thing right on her tail. It looked like an armored metal insect, except for the fact that its length was easily at least half the height of the skyscrapers surrounding it. It glided forward after the green blur that was Pidge, its belly scraping the ground and sending cars flying. "Dr. Savea," Shiro said in lieu of cursing his life out loud, "now might be a good time for you to get angry."  
  
Hunk was already walking towards the thing and a slow, almost casual pace. "That's my secret, Captain," he said resignedly, "I'm always angry." Then he was growing, shifting, changing, until he was seven feet tall and green and pissed as hell. He punched the metal monster right in the face and it came skidding to a halt, flipping over entirely from the force of his punch. Its tail end came hurtling down towards the other Avengers, but Pidge used a missile that blew the thing into smaller, less bone-crushing pieces.  
  
Miraculously, no one had gotten injured while all of this had happened. Shiro felt a surge of triumph, until he looked up to see two more metal creatures flying through that damn portal, along with a countless number of sentries. _Fuck._ Shiro looked at the portal, then at the other Avengers. On their side, they had a deadly assassin, an incredible sharpshooter, an powerful alien princess, a technical genius, an all but indestructible hulk -  
  
"Captain," Pidge said in a steady voice, "what do we need to do?"

 _And me,_ he realized. _They have me, too._

“Containment is our first priority, at least until we get that portal to close,” he said decisively. As he spoke, everything fell into place, all within a matter of seconds. Someone with Lance’s skills obviously needed high ground - he would need to be positioned on a rooftop. And of course, they would need to keep the damage contained as much as possible - Pidge would be best for that job, considering what her armor was capable of. In order to minimize the incoming sentries, he would need to send Allura to the sky as well, to bottleneck the portal as much as possible. That left Keith, Hunk, and himself to cover the ground, and - damn, this might actually work.

He gave his orders, and the other Avengers... _followed._ They worked as a unit, communicating through their comms and, well, blowing Lotor's shit up. They’d had their differences back on the helicarrier, but he could tell that those didn’t matter to them in the least right now. He doubted it would matter much after this, either.

Time passed by in a mad blur, and Shiro felt exhilarated by the fight. But he knew they couldn't keep this up forever. The sentries weren't slowing down, but his team would need to eventually. “Cap,” Keith said, as if reading his mind, “we can't keep this up forever. Someone has got to take out that portal.”

Shiro nodded. “You're going to need a ride up,” he noted.

Keith’s dark violet eyes followed the Galra sentries flying overhead on their small aircraft. “I have one,” he replied. “I might need a lift, though.” His eyes drifted to Shiro's shield.

Realizing what he planned to do, Shiro backed up so that Keith would have more of a running start. “Are you sure about this?” he asked, raising his shield.

Keith shrugged nonchalantly. “Don't exactly have time to take the elevator,” he said, and then he was running towards Shiro at full speed, leaping onto the hood of a nearby car and then onto Shiro's shield. Shiro boosted him up into the air, where he somehow grabbed ahold of a passing sentry’s vehicle, letting it carry him away through the air.

Shiro watched him for a moment, but then there were more sentries approaching and he didn't have time to worry. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught glimpses of the others: Pidge, flying and firing from her considerable arsenal; Hunk, leaping from building to building and tearing the robots apart with his bare hands; Allura, blasting them with crackling blue energy; and whenever a sentry collapsed seemingly out of nowhere, Shiro would spot arrows protruding from their bodies and knew he had positioned Lance well.

“Does anyone copy?” Keith's voice called over the comms suddenly. “I found a way to take out the portal!”

“Do it!” Shiro shouted, relieved at the idea of no more incoming sentries.

“Wait!” Pidge interjected suddenly. “You can't close it yet. I've just intercepted a nuclear missile, I need somewhere to put it.” _What the_ hell?

“When and _where_ the hell did you get a nuke?” Lance asked incredulously.

“Little parting gift to New York, courtesy of the World Council,” Pidge said bitterly. “They decided that we wouldn't be able to handle these things on our own, I guess.”

Shiro pushed aside his anger at that for now. “Get that missile through the portal, then.” he said. “We'll wait ‘till you're clear, and then -”

“Shiro, this is a _nuclear missile_ I'm holding. And there's too many sentries down there already. I might make it and I might not, but _you can't wait for me.”_ Her tone left no room for argument.

She was right. Shiro _hated_ that she was right. “Good luck, Pidge,” was all that he found himself capable of saying.

“Thanks, Cap,” she replied. Shiro spotted her in the sky then, carrying a missile over her head. She flew it right into the portal, never wavering once. Shiro wondered desperately what was on her mind as she did it. There was an explosion on the other side of the portal, and the sentries all collapsed where they stood. Their main controls must have been on the other side.

No one spoke for a few minutes. Then -

“Close it,” he heard himself say hoarsely. _Don't, don't close it, this isn't_ fair. Then the portal was shrinking, closing, dying.

And something - someone - fell out of it before it disappeared entirely. _Pidge._

“She did it,” Keith breathed in disbelief.

“She did it,” Shiro echoed, watching the green blur approach like a falling star.

“She...she's not slowing down!” Allura realized, preparing to launch herself into the sky to catch her…

And then Hunk jumped from out of nowhere, catching Pidge in one hand and using the other to grip the nearby building, slowing their fall until they reached the ground. Hunk set Pidge on the ground rather roughly, where she lay motionless.

“Is she breathing?” Shiro asked urgently, and Allura removed Pidge's mask so that they could tell. Shiro put his ear next to her mouth, but couldn't hear anything. He drew back, horrified. They had lost Pidge - clever, resourceful -

Hunk roared loudly, and Pidge jolted awake. “Gah!” she looked around wildly. “What the hell? What happened?”

Relief flooded Shiro, as well as exhaustion. “We won,” he said quietly, triumphantly.

“Oh,” Pidge said in a mildly surprised tone. “So it's...over? Cool.”

“I am glad to see you alive, Pidge,” Allura said sincerely, “but I'm afraid it isn't quite over yet.”

They found Lotor in Holt Tower, smashed into the floor by - well, Shiro could guess who. And he was willing to come quietly after that.  


Despite the havoc he had wreaked on the Earth, S.H.I.E.L.D. had decided to leave Lotor's punishment to the people of Altea. Allura brought him in herself, and she took the Tesseract with her. Shiro wasn't thrilled to have it off-world and out of sight, but he figured that it would be safe in Allura's hands.

Pidge and Hunk both went their separate ways from S.H.I.E.L.D. Lance and Keith returned to their jobs at S.H.I.E.L.D. And Shiro… Once again, Shiro wasn't sure what to do with himself in this modern age.


End file.
